Mark.T

Then this path is blocked. What we print are sewing patterns from PDFs so Plan B is to print black only designs in blue, red, orange (or whatever) and present it as a fun, free upgrade! Thanks to all for your input.

Agreed. AD is the point of origin for the print work but it does not hold the solution to my quest.

I agree that it is not an AD 'thing' but I hoped this would be a suitable place to tap into the knowledgeable community found here.

We print in very low quality through an RGB driver to a CMYK printer and colour accuracy is not critical. Most of our work is black only and we want to use CMY inks only as far as possible to use them up. How do we choose the best settings in AD (in RGB or CMYK) so that the print work goes through the RGB driver and then prints with as little K as possible and as much CMY as possible? Mark

I now believe I know the answer from this thread </topic/50209-export-as-pdf-13-acrobat-4/> and the answer is that what we want is not possible. Quote: PDF/X-1a:2001 – such a file has to be a PDF 1.3 file. PDF/X-1a:2003 – such a file has to be a PDF 1.4 file Macos 10.14 produces PDF 1.3 but the lowest Affinity can offer is PDF 1.4 Well, at least I know the answer!

What settings in AD 'Save As...' PDF are closest to printing to PDF via the standard macos print dialog? We have a rare, recurring but unpredictable problem with some elements in a design which was saved as a PDF being printed as solid black objects. We exclusively use wide format inkjet printers. When viewed, the PDF is fine but some elements that look fine on screen, print as black blobs. If we use the standard macos Print dialog and 'Save as PDF' or 'Open in Preview' we never have this issue even with exactly the same file. Rather than trying to work out why they print in black, we first want to try and replicate the settings that always work when we use the macos Print dialog. It would be reasonable to ask why we do not just use the macos Print Dialog if it works. This method leaves us with the designs on a fixed size page which we then have to manually crop. Your thoughts?

* Standard Disclaimer/Apology if this is a 'Me Too' request * I work with plan and design based PDFs and I use AD to manipulate objects within the PDF file. Sometimes I get A1 or A0 size designs spread across multiple A4 pages in a single PDF file and I would like AD to automate laying them out in a grid within a single page of a document. For example, 10 page PDF in A4 format making up a design 5 pages wide by 2 pages tall. Each page has a 10mm border all round. I want to be able to tell AD that the layout is 5 x 2 with a 10mm overlap and hey presto! its done. (I could imagine the same functionality being useful for a folder full of photos) Mark

My name is Mark, I am a Mac user based in the UK. Meaning no disrespect to Affinity Designer, my purchase was very much based on wanting a One Trick Pony. I need to be able to move, copy, duplicate and reorganise objects in PDF documents (designs not text based) and AD was my choice. I had been using a much more specialised tool but the development is slow and the app is buggy so I have had to bid a fond farewell to that old friend. I tried the Death by a Thousand Cuts that is Acrobat and Illustrator then found AD. If I end up using even 5% of its functionality I would be surprised but that is life.